


Keeper of Balance

by Omglooknoone



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-13
Updated: 2018-06-13
Packaged: 2019-05-21 11:45:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14914772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Omglooknoone/pseuds/Omglooknoone
Summary: If the avatar keeps the world in balance, who keeps Korra in balance?





	Keeper of Balance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Writerleft](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Writerleft/gifts).



> Shannon,
> 
> Thank you for all you do for the fandom! Please enjoy this fic while you recover :D

Korra is the avatar. This she knows for a fact. The avatar keeps the balance, between nations, between realms even, but how does the avatar stay in balance? Korra knows the answer to this immediately, mind flickering to brilliant emerald eyes and smooth, flawless skin. Korra also has no idea how Asami Sato does it. She is an absolute natural, balancing reconstruction of the city with jumpstarting the economy while enduring countless meetings with President Raiko and greasy investors. All of this responsibility, and she still manages to be at Korra’s side to support her. Korra would be lost without her adorably analytical brain and her endless compassion.

 

If the avatar is balanced by their ability to understand each of the four elements, Asami must be grounded by her inability to sense any of them. She has no idea what it is like to feel the particles increasing in speed before a jet of flames erupts from the sole of her foot, or what it feels like to tear a chunk of earth from the ground and hurl it at an opponent. Instead, her hands and head work nonstop, mechanically solving issues, taking them apart and reassembling them in a dozen different ways. Korra can’t even imagine what goes on inside of Asami’s head, whirring and ticking away as she thinks her way through every decision. She is the counterbalance to Korra, who focuses on what she feels, what her instincts and emotions tell her is right. Korra has felt the push and pull of the characters of each of the elements, but the balance she finds with Asami is something she can’t quite put her finger on.

XXX

Loving Asami feels like firebending. After all, it’s the element Korra connects with most naturally. She doesn’t need to think twice about the way she summons her chi from deep within the recesses of where her breath originates or the way that Asami courses through her veins as freely as chi does. Quick, sharp movements distinctly fueled by something far more powerful and complex than rage or hatred, Korra feels a fiery urge to go on the offensive and go after those who would hurt the people she loves. There’s no wasted movement as she kicks, jabs, and cuts through anything in her way, and although she is firing flames in an endless dance, her breathing is steady, in control. That’s because loving Asami isn’t like powerful, violent jets of flame firing from her fists. Instead it’s comparable to the way heat slowly blossoms from right beneath her rib cage, expanding and flooding her entire body. It happens when Asami gives her this look, one that she knows is only meant for her. A curtain of dark hair framing her perfect features, Korra nearly shivers when she looks into her eyes. Korra inhales deeply, feeling familiar warmth flood her body, reaching all the way to her fingertips and toes. Fierce love energizes every fiber of her being, burning steadily inside her chest, reminding her of what she fights for and keeping her breathing steady.

 XXX

Being with Asami isn’t all intense gazes and heated embraces. Sometimes Korra feels practically weightless. While she isn’t Zaheer (and she absolutely refuses to let go of her lovely raven-haired earthly tether), Korra swears she’s flying. Her heart is light and carefree, and it’s too easy to forget about everything going wrong in the world. But when she lands gently on her feet again and the familiar weight settles on her chest, telling Asami about fears and doubts that she would never dare breathe to anyone else or about troubling things she sees as she tries to repair the shattered earth kingdom is like the weight being lifted. It makes sitting up in the morning easier, the way it feels to move with no weights after a heavy training set.

 

Asami sees her for exactly who she is, and to Korra’s surprise, she hasn’t gone running for the hills yet. It’s nearly impossible for her to wrap her mind around how Asami can see every flaw and every weakness and still love her as fiercely as she does. This unconditional love is freedom to Korra. Asami’s love has no expectations and Korra has never felt so at home in her own skin. She thinks to herself that the world would be so much happier and more peaceful if everyone knew the kind of peace and contentedness she finds with Asami. For now, she supposes she’ll have to settle for diplomatic compromises and an effort to avoid conflicts and further hostilities.

 

For all her talk and headstrong, confrontational style, sometimes being with Asami makes her want to take the path of least resistance. Maybe there _is_ more work to being the avatar than fighting everyone who doesn’t agree with her. After all, the sooner she finishes her work the sooner she can be back at home, lounging around with a certain beautiful engineer.

XXX

Loving Asami is as freeing as airbending, but somehow Korra also feels grounded and steady, like she can endure anything with Asami at her side.  

 

Korra knows Asami has her back as surely as she knows the feeling of every particle of soil beneath her feet. Asami is level headed, practical, steady. No matter how dire the situation, she is nearly unshakeable. She doesn’t fall apart or falter even when everything is crumbling around her, and with her at Korra’s side, she feels ready to take on anything. Asami is a constant in Korra’s constantly shifting world. She stuck by Korra when her own father betrayed her, and never gave up on her, even when everyone else had long believed she would never recover. Those three years were the most grueling of Korra’s life, and she couldn't feel the same comforting connection to the earth as before, instead feeling lost and drifting aimlessly through each day. Weak and tired, Korra lost her purpose and sense of place in the world and it didn’t help that she wasn’t able to speak with the one person who could always see things clearly. Being with Asami felt like solid safety, nothing like this self-induced quicksand pit she had been trying to claw herself out of.  

 

Now that things are picking up, Korra is determined to rebuild even better than before. After defeating the leftover poison in her body, her own darkest doubts, and a ruthless dictator, Korra faces obstacles with a confidence and resilience that is not unlike the kind required in earthbending. Weathering blow after blow to find the right time to strike, Korra has all the time in the world, and moving forward, she pursues her purpose with an unyielding will.

 

Raising an earthen pillar, she can almost feel Asami’s steadying hand on her bicep, letting her know she’s there for her, no matter what. She shapes it carefully, making sure it can handle the weight of the scaffolding they’re constructing around it. She knows part of the reason she works so well with Asami is because of the way their relationship grew from a deep and meaningful friendship. It had always been too easy to tell Asami what she was thinking or feeling, so as friends they supported one another, building the foundation of their relationship out of honesty and trust before they even knew there was something more between them. She works with another earthbender to extend a beam across two columns, meeting in the middle to finish the beam that strengthens the left side. Asami is no earthbender, but she never fails to meet Korra in the middle to build their trust and faith in each other. Sometimes she’s even the one who bridges the gap, the one who adds an additional beam of support when Korra’s side of the building is struggling to stand tall. As the structure she’s working on becomes more steady, the shouting of the other earthbenders fades into the background. Growing together with Asami, as individuals and as a couple, feels like the steady construction of a monumental project. They build together, leaning on each other for support and standing together to persevere through anything, no matter what happens.

XXX

Building a structure that can withstand the elements is not without its challenges. Korra knows she and Asami have to be prepared for anything. Circumstances can change in an instant, and neither of them are strangers to change. Asami’s world was turned upside down when everything she thought she knew about Hiroshi was destroyed in an instant. Korra’s role as an avatar and entire identity was shattered by the poison that Zaheer put into both her body and her mind.

 

Fortunately, water is the element of change, and in order to make progress towards balance, things must change. Korra felt her feelings towards Asami change, ever so slightly, like the change in direction of a breeze over a pond, but she hadn’t been in the right frame of mind to notice at the time. Asami’s presence at her side became as constant as the moon’s pull on the tides, and in her time alone, Korra noticed her absence far more acutely than she had expected to.

 

Stumbling through the earth kingdom, bruised and worn out, Korra sought brawl after brawl in an attempt to regain her former physical strength. She reconnected with earthbending to blend in, but a waterbender at heart, her difficulty with regaining control over water tormented her. Her movements were no longer smooth and effortless, and she couldn’t adapt to her opponents, no longer able to turn their strength against them the way she had before. Unable to deal with her fears of inadequacy and her belief in her failure as an avatar, Korra stayed behind while the rest of the world kept modernizing and changing without her.  

XXX

“So I’ve been thinking,” Korra starts.

 

At this Asami’s eyebrows shoot up slightly.

 

“Uh oh,” She jokes.

 

“Hey, I can be deep and smart and stuff.” Korra protests.

 

Asami kisses her on the cheek and waits patiently for her to continue.

 

“Anyways I was thinking about the characters of each of the elements and how mastering them is part of what helps the avatar keep balance, because, well we understand each element. But there was something else that was keeping me in balance before I even realized it.”

 

“What was it?” Asami asks with a curious tilt of her head.

 

Her hair falls lightly over one side of her face, and she looks breathtaking as always, but Korra can’t help but almost laugh out loud at the genuine curiosity in Asami’s voice. This woman before her has rebuilt a company from the ground up and healed a crippled city by the sheer strength of her will but somehow she’s nearly unaware that these things don’t even compare to how amazing Korra finds her.

 

“You, of course.”

 

Asami looks shocked. This time Korra does laugh at the wonder in her expression before continuing.

 

“So this got me thinking, if Asami keeps me in balance, which element is she?”

 

Korra pauses, eyeing the other woman playfully.

 

“Well, go on. What’s the verdict?”

 

“I am a simple woman. I’ll tell you in exchange for something that you have.”

 

Asami sighs in defeat.

 

“Fine. I’ll start drawing up plans for an instant noodle speed cooker.”

 

“What? I just wanted a kiss.” Korra finishes with a crooked grin.

 

“Then I suppose you’ll allow me the honor of bestowing a kiss upon you, avatar?”

 

“Of course.”

 

Asami leans in, eyes half lidded and lips slightly parted. Korra feels herself wet her own lips unwittingly, and the breath she takes in is tinged with the taste of Asami’s perfume. Just as she feels her eyes start to close and the faintest sensation of brushing across her lips, Asami tilts her head and places the kiss smack dab on her nose. She pulls back, expression smug and indescribably beautiful.

 

“Hey!”

 

Asami gives her a pointed look, not unlike the looks exchanged between old married couples, that shuts her up immediately, and she gets right down to business.

 

“Oh alright. Well the answer I came up with is none of them!” Korra blurts excitedly.

 

“You’re telling me, that after all this thinking you did, you have come to the conclusion that I am nothing like any of the elements that balance you?”

 

“Kinda. But mostly, you’re all of them. You give me this fiery hope and keep me warm in the worst of times, but then again, when I’m with you, everything’s so easy that I feel practically weightless. Not to mention how incredibly steady and reliable you are. You’re the strongest person I know by far, and you never crumble or fall apart even when everything comes crashing down around you.”

 

She pauses to take a breath, trying to gage Asami’s reaction to her clumsily worded feelings. She’s quiet, and Korra can nearly see the gears whirring inside that brilliant raven-haired head of hers.

 

‘What about waterbending?”

 

“Oh man. Don’t even get me started. I have so many cheesy metaphors for you… if that’s okay?”

 

And suddenly she’s a bit nervous, maybe her wording isn’t quite right and Asami feels like this is all too forced or--

 

“It’s always okay, love.” Asami smiles reassuringly at her, eyelashes fluttering slightly. _How dare they perfectly imitate the way the butterflies are moving inside her stomach?_

 

“Sometimes when I look at you and you’re not paying attention, there’s this feeling that swells in my chest, like a big wave rising up. Like there’s this insurmountable love for you building up and coming to the surface, and it takes my breath away. Then when we dance together, like at the wedding, that’s definitely all waterbending. We’re not just moving together, we’re flowing together. There’s this constant give and take between us, a push and pull, a reciprocated flow of emotions and care. It’s like nothing I’ve ever felt before.”

 

Asami doesn’t say anything. She twists her fingers in the fabric of Korra’s shirt and pulls their lips flush against each other. Korra is caught by surprise, but only for the shortest of moments before letting herself sink into Asami’s kiss. It’s sweet and slightly honey flavored from Asami’s chapstick, and it’s permeated by a faintly detectable need. Not a fiery need, or a desire to get closer, but a need for them to convey the depth of their understanding and shared love for each other without any clumsy words getting in the way. Korra sighs against Asami’s lips, tapping her forehead against Asami’s lightly before pulling away.

 

“Sorry,” Asami breathes, “Words, uh…”

 

Korra kisses her again.

 

“Right? It’s not always so easy, miss CEO, conqueror of press conferences and all things.”

 

“Speaking of titles, if I keep the avatar in balance, doesn’t that make me the real avatar?” Asami asks playfully.

 

Korra’s eyes widen before a confused expression crosses her face.

 

“...no. You’re the, uh, keeper of balance!” She finishes proudly.

 

“Does that come with any special powers or privileges?”

 

“Well, for one, you can definitely bend me however you want.”

 


End file.
